WK Blog

WK Partners With Figured At Fieldays

WK is proud to be one of three New Zealand accounting firms selected to host the new farming accounting software Figured at Fieldays next week.

WK is proud to be one of three New Zealand accounting firms selected to host the new farming accounting software Figured at Fieldays next week.

Director Matt Kerr and associate Greg Newman will be presenting the innovative software to some of the 100,000+ visitors expected at the annual event.

Greg, who has been involved with the development of the software since the early stages, says WK’s Figured partnership strengthens our reputation as one of New Zealand’s most innovative accounting firms and business advisors.

“I’ve been using Figured for more than a year now, so have the experience to be able to talk about it not only from an accountant's perspective, but from a farmer’s perspective too.”

So far, most of WK’s farming clients have switched to Figured, and are already seeing the benefits of its enhanced budgeting, forecasting and production reporting features, he says.

“Something like this would have taken us days or weeks to do with our old accounting system, but with improved communications and the collaborative functionality of Figured, I was able to do it in a couple of hours, then discuss it with my client over the phone, while we’re both looking at the same screen.”

The enhanced forecasting tools and collaborative functionality allows farmers, accountants and banks to work together more effectively to gain real-time information on the farm’s performance.

Exciting developments of the software include a crop tracker useful for grain and seed producers as well as grape growers.

Greg Newman has been involved with the development of the software since the very early stages, providing advice to the developers to ensure it has functions and information of actual use to farmers and accountants.

For the past few weeks he’s been using the Figured version 2.0, which is due to be rolled out to other accountants and farmers within the next few weeks.

“Because we partnered with Figured on the ground floor, we’ve played a very big role in shaping the functionality of the software, and have developed a very close relationship with the Figured teams, meaning we’ve got a better idea than most about where the future of farm accounting is headed.”

The country’s largest dairy company downgraded its forecast milk payout for the current season to $4.40 per kg of milk solids.

“It’s looking pretty grim for our dairy farmers, who, love ‘em or hate ‘em, contribute a great deal to New Zealand’s economy - so when their income doesn’t even cover the cost of production, it affects the rest of us too.”

“By and large, dairy farmers are not negative people, they care about the environment and their stock,” he says.

“But many of them will be having to find ways to survive, and we’ve really got to help and support them however we can.”